Hello again, Story Club members. I'm Ivy, your ghostly host with the most and keeper of the

strangest, spookiest tales on earth. Today is another Ivy's chilling tale. This tale story club members is one of the sweetest scary

tales I've ever recorded because it was written by a very spectacular mom named Meg for her

daughter Kate. Kate's birthday is on May 5th, and because Kate is one of my beloved listeners and a story club superfan,

her mom reached out to me with this incredible chilling tale as a gift. How amazing is that?

Today's tale is one that Meg calls Backwards Birthday.

Kate slowly opened her eyes as the sunlight streamed in through her bedroom window.

This was it, her favorite day of the year, her birthday.

Today she'd turned 12 and her mom would do what she always did on the morning of Kate's birthday.

Come into her bedroom singing that

cheesy happy birthday song, dramatically holding a plate over her head with one cupcake with one lit

candle neatly placed on top. Every year, the cake was white and the frosting was bright pink

with little silver sprinkles on top.

Raspberry lemon was Kate's favorite combination of all time,

so that was the flavor of the cupcake every time.

Was it a little embarrassing to see her mom make a big fuss over her birthday?

Sure. She didn't tell her friends, but secretly,

Kate loved it. It was their sweet little family tradition. The best. Kate bounded out of bed,

looking down the hallway, but heard the telltale snores coming from her mom's room. Still asleep? Huh? On a day like

today, her birthday? She grumbled to herself as she started to stumble back to bed. But before

she slid under the covers, something large and furry appeared out of nowhere and knocked her down.

Beanbag! Kate yelled annoyed. Beanbag was the name of the family's 150-pound St. Bernard dog.

...